For almost two years, more than 90 companies, institutions and local communities of Südlicher Oberrhein and the district of Lörrach collaborated on the proposals for the competition. A total of seven projects involving different locations throughout the region were submitted for review. Of these, two have received the go-ahead by the state government and thus access to grants from the European Regional Development Fund, including plans for a "Regional Innovation Center for Energy Technology" at Hochschule Offenburg.
The “RIZ” to be developed at the Offenburg campus of the University will mainly be concerned about efficiency technologies. It will involve a laboratory building with state-of-the-art technical infrastructure – e.g., climatic chambers and various testing and measuring facilities – serving regional mid-size companies for research and development purposes. Its major objective is to create a research and application platform for efficiency technologies in industrial production processes as well as in building services engineering. The investment volume is about 10 million euros, administered by Hochschule Offenburg, which also succeeded in engaging a large donors’ circle of regional companies for co-financing.
As University Rector Professor Lieber explained further, "the ‘RIZ’ will provide additional research infrastructure for the fields of environmental engineering, renewable energies and resource efficiency. The focus of the grant is the new institute building, which will enable us to remain competitive as a research region. It does not, in other words, involve the creation of new study programs or additional study places."
The project was coordinated and controlled through the Klimapartner Oberrhein association. For their detailed press release, click <link http: www.klimaschutz-oberrhein.de html seiten external link in new>here.